Wednesday, June 04, 2008

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING/METASTASIZING "WHITEY" TAPE

Remember the "STUNNING!" Michelle Obama "whitey" tape, which no one has actually seen but everyone says is really, really horrible?

Well, I can't help noticing that its contents have changed a bit. Two days ago, Larry Johnson was assuring us that Michelle was on the tape with Louis Farrakhan:

It features Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan. They are sitting on a panel at Jeremiah Wright’s Church when Michelle makes her intemperate remarks. Whoops!!

Well, now, in a "scoop" at the blog HillBuzz that has been picked up verbatim by Larry, we're told that the vaporware videotape includes not Louis Farrakhan, but Khadijah Farrakhan, his wife.

...Michelle Obama appeared as a panelist alongside Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan and Mrs. James Meeks....

Eventually I assume we'll be told that the tape includes neither of the Farrakhans -- it includes Chaka Khan. Or the ghost of Sammy Kahn Cahn, composer of who wrote the lyrics for "Come Fly with Me," "High Hopes," and other pop standards. Or something like that.

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On the other hand, the alleged contents of the alleged rant just get more and more allegedly unhinged, according to the HillBuzz "scoop":

...For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on "whitey", and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America. Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that's when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who's seen this....

Did you follow that? She rants for a half hour, leading up to a suggestion that black criminals should choose white victims instead of blacks -- and then she says something even more outrageous, though for some reason it can't be revealed, even though we have an alleged summary of the alleged rant up to that point, presumably because what she says then is just jaw-droppingly awful.

Earlier, Larry referred to a single "image":

When that image comes out it will enter the politcal ads hall of fame.

As described now, this tape would be the source of a hell of a lot more than one damaging "image." Larry's multiple informants said there was only one? And even HillBuzz implies that there's one really bad one? Are these folks struggling to keep their fever dreams consistent with their earlier, less fevered fever dreams?

And, er, isn't it awfully curious that one part of her rant would include exactly the same recommendation that got Sister Souljah in hot water?

And she lashes out at Bill Clinton! As if she knows in advance what's going to happen to her husband four years later! She's clairvoyant!

And she does all this weeks before her husband is going to make a key speech at the Democratic convention, in the midst of his race for the U.S. Senate!

Oh yeah, I believe all this. And, yes, I'd love to buy a bridge.

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AND: This might be a good place to add Plantsmantx's comment to an earlier post:

I've been black for what is getting to be sort of a long time now, and I've also known several people who are also black. In my experience, the only people in the 21st century who use the slur "whitey" seriously are white conservatives. Hell, the only people in the 21st century who use it in a jokey way are white liberals. In fact, I'm wracking my brain trying to remember if I've ever heard a black person in the flesh (as opposed to a black person in a movie or on TV, mouthing words that were usually written by a white person) use the slur "whitey". I...can't remember any yet. Can I get back to y'all?

I'm old, so I remember the word, but I haven't heard it in almost 40 years, since I was a kid. And Michelle Obama is younger than I am -- she's 44.

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